Chris Hart

He takes a very strategic approach to creativity. Passionate about craft and a highly talented conceptual thinker, he couples intense attention to detail with the long view and big picture understanding of brands and branding.

Blue Marlin is all about Landing Big Ideas. The consultancy harnesses the energy of ideas for clients by building a deep understanding of their brands, their competitive context and how they connect with target audiences. A liberal dose of commercial nous and creative spark are then applied to bring these brands to life.

Recent clients include Unilever, Cadbury, GSK, Shell and Sainsbury’s.

latest article by Chris Hart (11 articles)

Did you know that Coca-Cola or a Coke-owned drink is the market leading soft drink in every country in the world except one? I didn’t until last week, when I saw The Secrets of the Superbrands on BBC3. Scotland is the only market not to have succumbed to the American elixir.

According to research by Mobio Systems, QR usage has grown by 4549 per cent in the last year. And the biggest user group is not as you might expect. Some 71 per cent of QR code scanners are 25-54 and the largest segment is in the 35-44 year old age group.

Who wants to be hidden away in the dark recesses of a cupboard? Brands want to bask in the spot lit world of the fridge. It is clearly a lighter, brighter environment with greater frequency of use. Commonsense dictates that people open their fridges more frequently than their food cupboards. In fact I’m sure some

Whenever a well-known company has the temerity to rebrand there are always naysayers. It is human nature to be resistant to change and these days everyone considers himself or herself to be an expert in the dark arts of marketing, so everyone has an opinion. What’s more, there have never been more opportunities to publish these amateur analyses.

The editor of a respected design magazine recently told me that these days it’s all about apps. Did she wink as she said it or was it a trick of the light? I don’t know, but I was perplexed. She’s been right about a lot of things in the last two decades. Wrong about a few. What about now?

You’ve got to love Noma Bar. A recent poster for the Victoria and Albert Museum’s family fun activities caught my eye. As a dad I’m always interested in things to entertain the kids without destroying the family finances, and as a designer I’m interested in ways to involve my girls in creative pursuits, although given the contrary nature of children they will probably want to become accountants to spite me and my illustrator wife.

Human behaviour is a curious thing. When staff at a major corporation complained that the lifts took far too long, the bosses costed out a refit, discovered that it would be astronomical and called in a firm of behavioural specialists instead. Shortly afterwards full length mirrors were fitted by the lifts on each floor and the complaints stopped overnight.